Airlie Beach / Canonvale – Air/Sea Rescue Boat Ramp
Ellis William Lymburner was a prominent surveyor in Queensland and carried out a large number of selection surveys between the Burdekin and Proserpine River districts. His early surveys in the Proserpine and Whitsunday areas date back to the early 1880's.

Alexandra Headlands / Mooloolaba 
William Pettigrew was born and schooled in Scotland where he worked as a farmer before training as a surveyor and then emigrating to Australia at the age of 23. 
Pettigrew explored and mapped the coast north of Moreton Bay to the mouth of the Mary River and in 1873 constructed the Cooloola Railway. He established sawmills in Brisbane and on the banks of the Maroochy river and also ran a shipping business and built a wharf and depot at Mooloolaba.
He served as a magistrate, did three terms as an alderman and then as the Mayor of Brisbane Municipal Council. During the 1850's he supported moves to end convict transportation, encourage free immigration and achieve separation from New South Wales.
Pettigrew also helped establish Brisbane as a Municipality. Floods, fire and economic depression destroyed his business in 1893 and he was bankrupt by 1898, after which he retired to Bowen, where he is buried.

Atherton - Hallorins Hill Lookout 
Falconer Hutton led a life of service to surveying, being articled in 1879 to surveyor J A Wood for two years before obtaining a post in the Survey Office where he qualified as a surveyor. After working with licensed surveyour O'Connor in the St Lawrence district, he obtained contracts for survey work in the north, including Herberton and Atherton, which latter town he surveyed and named.
He left the Tablelands in 1886 and after rejoining J A Wood, did much work with J V S Desgrand in the Barcoo and Thompson River districts.
He married Miss Clare holt and together they raised a family of five sons and two daughters in the Rockhampton district.  He also bought property, 'Comet Downs' which suffered in the 1902 drought, but he gradually rebuilt the herd. In 1916, at the age of 54 he volunteered and served in the AIF for two years until the end of world war 1.
Hutton made a great contribution to civic life in Rockhampton, serving as a Councillor almost continuously from 1919 to 1933. He was described as being a good alderman who brought "humour and common sense to bear on the Municipal problems that came before him at the Council table".

Barcaldine - APEX Park, Cnr Landsborough/Capricorn Highways
Charles H Baird was born in St Kilda, Victoria. In 1899 Baird moved to Queensland, and in 1914 laid out town blocks in Barcaldine. Baird joined the Queensland Institute of Surveyors (forerunner of today’s Surveying and Spatial Sciences Institute) in 1899 and held the position of President during 1909.He was also appointed the Institute’s representative to the Surveyors Board of Queensland in 1901. 

Biloela – Lions Park
Rod Harrigan was a prominent central Queensland land surveyor. In 1960, his love for the bush saw him with his family move from Brisbane to Biloela to work as a Government surveyor. They lived in Biloela until 1970 and during that time Rod carried out many property surveys in the Callide and Dawson Balleys. This also included surveying many new town allotments in the Banana Shire.

Birdsville – Birdsville Pub

Blackwater

Boulia – Donohue Highway 

Bowen – Datum Rock
The origial survey mark chiselled on the face of Datum Rock dates back to the Hydrographic Survey carried out in Port Denison by Lt G E Richards in 1887. The first town sections for the town of Bowen were carried out by Clarendon Stuart in 1861.

Bribie Island – Bellara Boat Ramp
Surveyors explored the location of the first settlements in Queensland in the early 1820's. In 1880, Alfred Delisser surveyed Portion 39 (491 acres) on part of which the lookout reserve now stands. He was a prominent surveyor in the early development of the Moreton Bay region. William Embury Hill worked as a licenced surveyor from 1878 to 1916 and served on the Surveyors Board 1911 - 1916.

Brisbane - Capalaba Regional Park 
                 - Picnic Point 
                 - Mount Coot-tha 
                 - Botanical Gardens

Bundaberg – Riverside Parklands
Assistant Surveyor James Charles Burnett b.1815 d. 1854 Kangaroo Point
By the early 1840s, squatters had settled beyond the Darling Downs into the headwaters of a then-unknown river system. It was postulated this river (thought to be the Boyne) could provide port access for wool shipments. Burnett and Captain Perry set out in November 1846 from Brisbane to trace the river to the sea, only to be halted by rain and flood near Ban Ban Springs. Burnett returned again in March 1847, being halted by deep creeks and swamps on 1 April 1847 near Bundaberg's city centre, and only about 15 kilometres from the sea. He persisted and returned by whaleboat in July, and reached upstream of his earlier expedition's halt. All this exertion took its toll, and Burnett's obituary in the Moreton Bay Courier noted, "Burnett's constitution decayed prematurely because of his enthusiastic and almost reckless devotion to the trying duties of his profession".

District Surveyor John Charlton Thompson b. 1827 Hull, Yorkshire d.1878 Brisbane
Thompson was both one of the first land owners in the Bundaberg district, and the first government surveyor in the area. He arrived in the region with his chainmen and wife Hannah in 1867, selecting Rubyanna under generous terms for coffee and sugar plantations (satisfied in part by planting roasted coffee beans!). Thompson together with assistants Edwards and Ellwood surveyed the first Bundaberg town sections in January 1869. Following the sudden death of Hannah in August 1873, the heart-broken Thompson sold up the holding named after her and left the area for Sydney.

Chainman Alfred Dale Edwards d. 1889 Cairns district
Edwards went in the opposite direction in 1869, working with survey parties in North Queensland. The fantasist and sometime-inebriate Edwards was fond of telling a tall tale of his shipwreck on the Wide Bay coast, and years of living with the local Aborigines, who gave him his tribal name of "Bunda". This in turn spawned the names of the town of Bundaberg, and Bunda streets in Innisfail and Cairns. After working under Surveyor Tom Behan in the 1880s, Edwards died near Cairns in 1889.

Caboolture – Centenary Lakes

Cairns 

Calliope – Historical Village
In 1853 the first surveyor of Gladstone, Francis Peter MacCabe, was appointed by the NSW government to take a surveying party to the Port Curtis area to establish a settlement. MacCabe established the first allotments within Gladstone and created suburban and farming allotments within the district around the area of West Stowe. The party also mapped the features of the district including mountains, rivers and roads.

Caloundra

Childers - Childers Caravan Stop
Pioneer Surveyors Alexander John Aldridge and Frederick John Charlton were instrumental in the early development of the Childers area. 

Alexander was a private surveyor, that is he was not a government employee, but was contracted to produce surveys for the Queensland Government who were experiencing their own “skill shortage” of surveyors at that time. He emigrated from England to Australia as a 21 year old in 1875. It is typical of the early days of Queensland’s surveying profession that history has left little trace of Aldridge except for the surveys he produced.

We do know that he surveyed the area around Childers in 1882 when the rich timber resources in the Isis Scrub were encouraging timber getters to move to the area. The railway was still to arrive, and timber was logged, hauled and floated, usually to Maryborough mills. His survey, Registered Plan C37632, shows 50 acre blocks called Volunteer Land Order Selections.

In 1887, the railway was extended from Isis Junction (where a failed attempt had been made to set up a town around the railhead in 1886). Aldridge commenced surveying lots in the Township of Childers in 1887, including Registered Plan RP14478. 

We know a lot more about Frederick Charlton who was working at the same time as Aldridge.

“On the 22nd of November, 1923, there passed along the great unsurveyed highway the calm soul of Frederick John Charlton, pioneer.”

So reads the obituary of this man who contributed so much to the town of Childers and his profession of surveying. He came to Queensland in 1865 as a 17 year old and in 1870 became a selector on the Lower Burnett River, occasionally assisting in the survey of farms in the district. He lost everything in a flood, gave up farming and decided to study surveying.
Charlton initially worked as assistant surveyor and engineer to the Roads Branch of the Works Department in the Gympie and Maryborough districts. Between 1879 and 1882, he served his time as assistant surveyor to W T Elmy, and in 1882 passed the exam to become a licensed surveyor.

In today’s terms we would refer to Charlton as a developer, purchasing land in Childers as soon as it was available. For instance, we know that in 1894, Charlton and his business partner Henry Jardine Gray sold a site containing 1 rood 17.39 perches to William Ashby. This became the site of Dittmer’s Store, one of the many heritage buildings preserved in Childers today.

In March 1902 fire destroyed many of the shops along the southern side of Childers' main street. When the lots were resurveyed after the fire, the survey resulted in the current dogleg shape of the lots that we see in that part of Childers today. In 1895 Frederick Charlton and his business partner, Henry Jardine Gray, sold 54-58 Churchill Street to William Thompson and Robert Dinnie. Today St Vincent de Paul operates on part of this land.

“From 1894 to 1923 Mr Charlton was a member of the Surveyors’ Board, being appointed by the Government while a staff-surveyor, and otherwise being elected by the Institute. His record of eleven years as President of our Institute is unique”.

This quote from his obituary tells us that probably Charlton’s greatest contribution to his adopted land of Australia was his dedication to the advancement of the profession of surveying. From 1900 to his death in 1923, he was a member of the Institute of Surveyors, the forerunner of today’s Surveying and Spatial Sciences Institute (SSSI). His contribution during those 23 years was immense, and as the Institute recorded after his death he “cut deeply into his earning time to advance our interests”. Volunteer members of SSSI’s Bundaberg Town Group of Spatial Scientists have worked tirelessly to bring you the Q150 Commemorative Survey Mark and Sign in Childers, and are following in this proud tradition.

Acknowledgement - We are grateful to Kaye Nardella, for her assistance with research. Kaye is the Curator of the Museum of Lands, Mapping and Surveying, Queensland Department of Environment and Resource Management. In particular, the quotes above are from the Institute’s journal, The Queensland Surveyor, 1924 Vol 6, No. 6, p.6. The photos on this page are also from the Museum’s collection. The Museum is open to the public and located at the Landcentre, Woolloongabba. Or visit the Virtual Museum at www.nrw.qld.gov.au/museum/index.html

Cleveland - Raby Bay Boat Ramp
James Warner was the son of a master mariner. In 1840, while surveying the western shores of Moreton Bay, he named the area of Cleveland. In 1851 he surveyed and lodged plans for the town of Cleveland. James Warner remained a distinguished surveyor until 1884. His two sons later became respected surveyors.

Dayboro

Deception Bay – Esplanade Boat Ramp

Emerald – Moreton Park

Gladstone – Marina, Spinnaker Park, Alf O'Rourke Drive 
Francis Peter MacCabe was born in Dublin, Ireland on 18 April 1817. He began his working career at the age of 16 when he joined the Ordnance Survey of Ireland, and later worked in England until 1841 at which time he migrated to New South Wales. From 1841 through to 1853 MacCabe spent most of his time as a government licensed surveyor, working around Twofold Bay and the Monaro Plains District, and later in western New South Wales surveying towns along the Darling River. It was these years of work experience in a harsh environment which gave MacCabe the experience necessary to carry out his new task assigned by the then NSW Surveyor-General Sir Thomas Mitchell. He was put in charge of a survey party destined for Port Curtis to establish a new settlement. Still six years before Separation, this was then a northern outpost of the Colony of New South Wales.
MacCabe and his survey party of 16 men arrived in the Port Curtis area in June 1853. His initial duty was to map out a wharf site, and establish the town of Gladstone, for which he surveyed one hundred and eighty allotments. After this, the surveying party proceeded inland to open up the district by laying out suburban and farming allotments within the now East Stowe area. Here they surveyed over fifty suburban allotments and fifty four farming allotments. Throughout their travels inland, the party also mapped the layout and features of the land including rivers, mountains and new roads. MacCabe and his party stayed in the Port Curtis area until May 1855 when their job was completed. Like many other pioneering surveyors, the harsh Australian conditions in which he had worked for over 14 years had affected his health which prompted his return to the more settled areas of southern New South Wales. MacCabe settled in Wollongong shortly afterwards and married Jane Osborne, where they had 14 children. He worked for his father as a mine manager until his retirement in the 1880’s.

Goondiwindi – Gunsynd Statue

Gracemere – Anzac Park 

Gympie – Old Lands Office, Channon Street
Clarendon Stuart - Gold was discovered by James Nash in 1867 and the settlement of Nashville sprang up along Nash’s Gully adjacent to where the gold had been found. It was surveyor Clarendon Stuart’s unpopular task in 1869 to formalise the location and alignment of Mary Street between the haphazardly located buildings. This building, erected in 1976, was the first substantial building established in Gympie and originally housed the Courthouse.

Hervey Bay – Wide Bay Water Park

Innisfail 
This area was first opened up for the purpose of cultivation of sugar cane, and initially nine selections were granted in 1880 to T.H.Fitzgerald and his family and friends. T.H.Fitzgerald, a qualified surveyor and engineer, was one of the earliest sugar men in the district. A small land rush followed in 1881 and 1882. The first selector in the Mourilyan area was H.M.Stapleton.

Early Surveyors:- The first township in the area was designed and surveyed in early 1883 by surveyor M.W.Britton and named Musgrave, to be renamed Flying Fish Point in 1961. The initial site for the town of Geraldton – to be renamed Innisfail on 20th August 1910 – was resumed in 1881 at the junction of the two Johnstone Rivers. Town sections and allotments were set out by Surveyors E.M.Waraker and E.R.Warren in 1883. The main streets, Rankin, Edith and Grace were named after Surveyor E.B.Rankin and his two daughters.
Surveyor W.J.Callendar was the first long term resident surveyor and engineer in Innisfail, conducting town and rural surveys of new selections from 1890 until the time of his death in 1922. He conducted several surveys on the initial routes for the two main access tracks to Innisfail, now known as the Bruce and Palmerston Highways, the junction of which is adjacent to this site.
Other surveyors based in Innisfail in the early days of settlement included W.H.Cadell and D.F.Ryland.

Ipswich – Limestone Hill National Park

Lake Moodarra

Lamington National Park

Logan River - Parklands

Longreach – Stockman’s Hall of Fame
Jacques V S Desgrand - Jacques Vincent Stephenson Desgrand was born in France in 1852 and arrived in Queensland in 1868 where he was articled to surveyor George Weale. In 1877 Desgrand became Land Commissioner servicing the Mitchell and Gregory North Pastoral Districts, of which Longreach later became a major centre. In 1890 he became a grazier and surveyor until rejoining the Lands Department in 1902.

Mackay - Botanic Gardens
Bernard C Dupuy was a surveyor of the early 20th century with great vision for the future of Mackay. His work was of an impeccable standard and accuracy considering the technology of the time. Part of the legacy he left was a control survey that still maintains the alignment of streets throughout Mackay's CBD.

            - Boat Harbour
Thomas H Fitzgerald surveyed the site of Mackay in 1864 - 65 and is responsible for the many references to classical literature in the street names of South Mackay. He also saw the potential in the region for growing sugar cane and invested in setting up several of the regions first plantations and mills.

Moranbah

Mount Isa - Lookout

Mount Mee - Lookout
Surveyors explored the location of the first settlements in Queensland in the early 1820's. The Moreton Bay Region was opened to free settlement from 1842. Martin Lavelle was responsible for subdivision of farm land from Bellmere to Goong Creek including Caboolture in 1866.
Locally born Gavan Newman was a registered surveyor in the region from 1914 til 1970. His career in surveying spanned some 60 years.

Mount Morgan – Railway Museum

Mount Tamborine - Binna Burra 
                                - Hang-glider Launch Pad

Mundubbera – Black Stump Park, Durong Road/Burnett Highway)
James Postlethwaite and Rockley Turner - In 1863 the survey of the first Mundubbera Township was carried out on the southern side of the Burnett River by surveyor James Postlethwaite. Closer settlement commenced in 1909 when the Mundowran area was surveyed by Rockley Turner who also surveyed the present day site of Mundubbera in 1912.

Murrumba Downs – John Oxley Reserve
Surveyors explored the location of the first settlements in Queensland in the early 1820's. The Moreton Bay region was opened to free settlemnt from 1842. James Warner arrived as one of the first surveyors in the colony in 1839. He workded for the survey office and later in private practice. In recognition of his work in the Moreton Bay region, a parish and the suburb on Warner are named after him.
Allan Ogg was another local surveyor. His plan M331467 created the Petrie Railway Station.

Nambour

Noosaville

Palmer River

Portsmith – Tingara Street

Properpine – Pioneer Park
Ellis William Lymburner was a prominent surveyor in Queensland and carried out a large number of selection surveys between Burdekin and Proserpine River districts. His early surveys in the Proserpine and Whitsunday areas date back to the early 1880's.

Queensland / Northern Territory Border Survey
A 150 km section in the 150th year of Queensland Last surveyed in 1884 – 125 years ago!
Conducted by Bennett & Bennett Surveyors

Project: To resurvey/identify part of the QLD/NT border from the original 253 mile post (at the Donohue Highway) southward to the original 163 mile post in remote SW corner of the state. Target distance of 150 km (90 Mile) - Project team of 7 Volunteers.
History: Boundary of 138 E Longitude agreed to by South Australia and Queensland governments in 1862 (147 years ago)
- Boundary surveyed by Poeppel & Wells in 1884 (125 years ago)
- Our proposed section has not been surveyed since that date of 1884

The team drove across Queensland to the Northern Territory border, arriving at Boulia on Friday afternoon 28th August, 2009. A Q150 Commemorative mark was placed and located in the centre of town as part of the Surveying and Spatial Sciences Institutes (SSSI) program of Coordinated survey marks across the state of Qld.
The next morning the team drove to the starting border location and commenced the Border Survey. A second Q150 mark was placed at the Donohue Highway and QLD/NT border intersection. This was the teams last site of civilization for a week and all food, water, survey and camping supplies were carted in with us.
The Survey team then followed the border and traced the survey of Poeppel & Wells 1884 in search of the original survey posts. Large parts of the border can’t be accessed by vehicle so it was accessed by foot through the rugged and dry Toomba and Toko Ranges. At the end of the week our team came out of isolation and made its way to the far-western Qld town of Birdsville. There the team sought refreshments and joined in the celebrations at the Annual Birdsville races.
We then Commenced the long journey back to our Coomera office, arriving back on Sunday the 6th September, 2009 at 5pm for our welcome home party.

Other notes:
- Survey supported by SSSI Qld
- Video to be conducted for Student Surveying training and to highlight the adventure side of surveying and the viability of surveying as a career option to High school students.
- Historic re-discovery of our States Heritage.

For more details:
Contact: Paul Jones (Bennett and Bennett Surveyors)
95 Upton Street, Bundall. Qld 4217
Ph: 07 55736177, Mob: 0411 516620
Email: pjones@bennettandbennett.com.au
Web site: www.bennettandbennett.com.au

Redcliffe – Settlement Cove
John Oxley, Robert Hoddle, Capt John Wickham, James Burnett - Along with the establishment of the first settlement at Redcliffe surveys were conducted by John Oxley and Robert Hoddle. In 1824 Hoddle investigated Moreton Bay and navigation channels while Oxley examined the site of the penal settlement. Further surveys of the bay were carried out after free settlement. In 1846 Capt Wickham (Commander of HMS Beagle 1837-40) was employed in surveys of Moreton Bay and its approaches. This work was complemented by surveyor James Burnett’s work on land, and greatly facilitated the use of the port.

Rockhampton - Blackwater Park
                         - Tourist Information Centre
Arthur Francis Wood was one of the earliest known surveyors of the Rockhampton area. He was born in June 1827, in Devonshire. He was one of the most prominent and important among the earliest settlers of Rockhampton. Not long after he arrived in Australia from London, he joined the NSW Government as a surveyor. In 1858, he was selected to take charge of a surveying party in Rockhampton. Arthur lived in Rockhampton for the remainder of his life and passed away on 14th October 1891.

Roma – Arthur Street Car Park

Samford – Main Street

Sandstone Point – Boat Ramp
Surveyors explored the location of the first settlements in Queensland in the early 1820's. James Burnett's 1843 feature survey of the coast of Moreton Bay north of the Pine River, Deception Bay and Bribie Island facilitated the use of the port. In 1868 Wiliam Fryer surveyed the whole of the current locality of Sandstone Point, extending from Toorbul Point westwards to Ningi and Godwin Beach.

Southport - Broadwater Parklands
Henry Schneider - Oxford scholar Henry Schneider, arrived in Queensland in 1866, “fired with stories of the wonderful doings in Australia”. He became a surveyor in about 1876 and was one of the many Surveyors who opened up the Gold Coast Region. In 1883 he undertook the first survey of this part of Broadwater Park. He was a Magistrate for the Colony, a member of the Royal Society, and an early member of the Queensland Surveyors Institute, forerunner of today’s Surveying and Spatial Sciences Institute.

Strathpine – Pine Rivers Park
Surveyors explored the location of the first settlements in Queensland in the early 1820's. The Moreton Bay region was opened to free settlement from 1842. James Warner, William Fryar and Allan Ogg surveyed much of Strathpine and Lawnton into farm lots from 1860 to 1870. The smaller residential lots along Gympie Road were surveyed by Harry Raff in 1886. 

Sunshine Coast

Toowoomba – Federation Park
Toowoomba and Drayton surveyors Francis (Frank) Gregory and Walter Hume surveyed extensive subdivisions for farming portions over large pastoral runs such as Glengallan, Talgai, Clifton and Westbrook in the 1860's. Gregory was the original owner of Harlaxton House and was a successful Australian explorer with his brothers Augustus and Charles. Hume went on to make significant contributions to surveying on the Darling downs.

Townsville - Sir Leslie Theiss Drive
                    - The Strand

Winton – Banjo Patterson Memorial

Yeppoon - Rosslyn Bay Boat Harbour
Charles Daniel Dunne was one of the earliest known surveyors of the Rosslyn Bay area. He was born at Western Creek Station, Darling Downs in 1852. Educated at Ipswich Grammar School, he passed onto the Sydney University, where he took his B.A. Degree in 1879. Charles was employed by the Surveyors Department in the Rockhampton and Logan districts until around 1879. Mr. C.D.Dunne, Authorised Surveyor, died at his residence, Rawhiti, Kingston, on January 24th 1918, at age 66.